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To Heart
To Heart (トゥハート Tou Hāto) is a series of open-world adventure games developed by Drillimation Studios and Rareware. While the Japanese version was geared towards adults, the North American, European, and Australian versions were geared towards teenagers. The first installment, To Heart, was released on May 23, 1997 for the Nintendo 64. A second game, To Heart 2, was released on December 28, 2004 on the Xbox. Plot ''To Heart'' (1997) Hiroyuki Fujita is sick of getting grounded all the time, so he decides to visit his school on an attempt to lose his virginity and maybe even find true love. Gameplay ''To Heart'' (1997) The game begins at the entrance of the school. Players are given seven real time days to complete the game, which if not completed, Hiroyuki will commit suicide, resulting in game over. Players control Hiroyuki's movements with the control stick and perform commands by pushing the R button and selecting one. If the player is stuck on what Hiroyuki is supposed to do, he can talk to Akari Kamigishi, who will give him tips on what he is supposed to do. A girl is available at the beginning of the game. If Hiroyuki decides to have unprotected intercourse with a girl, he will contract a sexually transmitted disease and die. This can be avoided with a condom. He will usually question the girl if she will get his virginity or not. Hiroyuki starts with $100 in hand (10,000 yen in the Japanese version). If he is running low on money, he can gamble at the Drillimation Fun Time Arcade to get more. Development Development of To Heart started after the release of Super Smash Keyboards in 1992 originally as an arcade game for the Driller Engine 2000 arcade board. It was being worked on the same team who worked on Super Smash Keyboards, who were taking a break from the usual violence Super Smash Keyboards featured. This was supposed to be Drillimation's second platformer on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The game was originally titled Dinosaur Rollercoaster with a rather expansive look. The game's main protagonists, Hiroyuki and Akari, had different styles for the game's single player mode. Before the final release, the character bios in the playable Microsoft Windows demo say that Hiroyuki and Akari are at least 13 years old. The game also had a multiplayer mode with a four-player deathmatch mode. Another unique aspect to the game was the character emotions. The game's cast had a wide variety of emotions they can convey, as well for the enemies. The game's cheerful scenery gave it the look of an interactive anime. As development of the game progressed, engineers at Rareware visited Drillimation and saw the game in action. The game was planned for a holiday 1993 release, but was delayed due to technical problems. Also, the engineers from Rareware who visited Drillimation, decided to take part in this production, which caused Drillimation to cancel the Sega Genesis, Turbografx-16, and Neo Geo versions. The game was ultimately renamed To Heart: The Adventures of Hiroyuki and Akari and was slated to be released on the Super Nintendo in October 1994. From a request from Rareware engineer Chris Seavor, the game was delayed again. To wait out the delay, a high school student who was a Drillimation fan and game programmer from Denver, Colorado captured footage from the game and decided to make a bootleg for Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 computers, privately released it on the internet in September 1995. Depending on what version of Windows the player had, the game either ran at 256 colors (Windows 95) or 20 colors (Windows 3.1). The game also had several MIDI conversions the Super Nintendo prototype had. If the player left Hiroyuki or Akari idle, they would pull out their Game Boy and can be heard playing a bonus stage from Super Mario Land. After the bootleg was released, it was the last time anyone saw Hiroyuki and Akari as anything but mature. Hiroyuki and Akari began their new life in 1996 on the Nintendo 64 when Hiroshi Takajima asked Ken Lobb to take charge. Takajima came up with the idea of having Hiroyuki take back a package that was stolen by a gang of KEJA hackers. Seavor said that more mature humor that teens can accommodate was a key element. The game was unveiled at E3 1996 and a downloadable Windows demo where players had to comply with the new COPPA law (the player had to be 13 or older) in order to download and play the game. The game was released on May 23, 1997. Advertisements for the game were featured in GamePro. Controversies :Main Article: Nintendo v. Drillimation Studios Although Drillimation was known for their family-friendly games like Mr. Driller and Lucky Star, the first game was subject of controversy. There were numerous news reports of American teenagers engaging in sexual intercourse as depicted in the game, even though the sex scenes are blacked out. A group of angry parents asked the Entertainment Software Rating board to change the rating from Teen to Mature, legally restricting it to players over 17. This did not happen; and as a result, numerous lawsuits were filed to Drillimation and Rareware. The game was banned from being released in the Republic of Guy. Shortly after the ban, Nintendo sued Drillimation over the controversies. As a result, Drillimation lost the case and had to pay over $11 million in damages. Category:Video game controversies Category:Video game series